Texas Finds Collider Conversion Plan All Wet

March 17, 1994|By Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

WASHINGTON — Energy Department officials have offered a possible solution to the perplexing question of what to do with the canceled Superconducting Super Collider: turn it into a massive underground water tank.

The latest plan calls for sealing off entrance shafts and letting the unfinished tunnel gradually fill with rainwater that would seep in from the ground.

"Over time, it would probably fill with water," said James Hall, the Energy Department official in charge of the project. "That is an acceptable way to deal with the tunnel."

But Hall's proposal didn't wash with Texas officials, who continue to seek alternative uses for the abandoned 14.5-mile cavern just south of Dallas-Ft. Worth.

"I don't believe DOE has any business saying that we can just put a cap on it and let it fill up with water," said Shelton Smith, chairman of a state commission that oversees Texas' stake in the project.

Energy Department officials floated the idea this week at a contentious congressional hearing focusing on the department's efforts to shut down the aborted $11 billion project.

Collider critics, who persuaded Congress to terminate the atom smasher last year, accused the Energy Department of stalling the cancellation in an attempt to appease Texas Gov. Ann Richards. The governor, who is up for re-election this year, has been pressing federal officials to reimburse Texas for its $500 million investment in the failed research effort.

"She's got her hand out and wants as much as she can possibly get," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.), a leading collider opponent. "Spending money on payoffs to Texas will not help American science."

In another development, collider officials acknowledged that about $40,000 worth of government computer equipment has been stolen from project offices in recent months.

To avoid additional losses, the Energy Department has imposed a security crackdown that is costing the federal government about $250,000 a month, a department official said.

The price of additional security is just a small part of the estimated $568 million cost of shutting down the project. The federal government had invested about $1.5 billion in the collider before Congress voted to cancel it.

Although the Energy Department initially planned to refill the unfinished tunnel with dirt, Hall said officials have since rejected that idea. He said that letting the tunnel fill with water would avoid cave-ins and preserve it for future use.

The Energy Department is still examining the possible environmental implications of the water proposal, but Hall said he does not anticipate any problems. Only about 5 miles of the 14.5-mile tunnel is lined.

"We are not going to contaminate the groundwater," he told lawmakers.

Original plans for the collider called for construction of a 54-mile tunnel that would be used to force collision between rotating beams of particles.

Scientists had hoped the subatomic debris would provide information about the origins of matter.

Texas officials, who have been searching for alternative uses for the Ellis County site, acknowledged that they have not come up with any plan that would use the unfinished tunnel.

Smith said the most promising options include using the collider's facilities to build equipment for other particle accelerators, turning the project into regional computer center and using the facilities for cancer research and proton therapy.